


Can't Feed Misinformation to Children

by avengercat



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Babysitting, First Date, Fluff, Hockey, M/M, Superfamily (Marvel), ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-02
Updated: 2014-07-02
Packaged: 2018-02-07 03:45:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1884120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avengercat/pseuds/avengercat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While babysitting Peter, college student Steve Rogers accidentally calls Tony which turns out fortuitously for all three. Peter and Tony bond over science, Steve and Tony start dating. And while Tony might not be a hockey fan, he could turn into one with the right eyecandy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Feed Misinformation to Children

**Author's Note:**

  * For [littlehawkeye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlehawkeye/gifts).



> My late (does it even need to be said ;_;) STAC fulfillment! My draw, the lovely [rumikofujikavva](http://rumikofujikavva.tumblr.com/) said she liked happy endings, high school/college AUs, interactions with children and hockey and I live to please/incorporate everything. Enjoy!
> 
> Oh, and before there's an awkward lack of clarity, Steve's 21, an undergraduate art student and the Captain of the college's varsity hockey team and Tony's about 17, doing post-graduate work at the same college.

Steve was more or less at his wit’s end. Peter Parker was as sweet a child as Aunt May had promised but the kid was more curious than a cat and half as cautious. He’d managed to stop the kid from trying to conduct any more experiments but figuring out the answers to the theoretical questions the kid was asking him now was beyond him. The conversation had begun innocuously enough, him asking Peter about events in his life recently and being asked in turn. Mentioning how he’d finally been forced into getting a smartphone since his old phone had been on its last legs hadn’t seemed like a bad idea. That was before Peter had latched onto the question of how cell phones functioned and before he’d realized the level of detail the kid would want.

He’d been Googling for the past 10 minutes in which time Peter had come up with another 10 questions while waiting for Steve to attempt to digest the information to explain the differences between how phones sent messages and calls to each other and why some providers were good and others weren’t. Because ‘they send signals to a tower which find the other person’s cell phone’ was not a satisfactory answer apparently. He’d been ready to admit defeat and just tell Peter there wasn’t much more he could understand about it. So very ready. But then the kid had turned to look at him with big, trusting brown eyes and told him how happy he was that Steve was trying to help him find answers, just like how his dad had before Uncle Ben and Aunt May had started taking care of him (‘but no offense Steve, dad was smarter at this.’ ‘That’s okay, he was a scientist right? ‘Yep!’). While he hadn’t been apprised of where Peter’s real parents were, it sounded as if they’d been gone for a while and that was always hard on a kid. 

The 10-year old looked up from the table where he was drawing, or more accurately, diagramming what looked to Steve like an electrical circuit. And not a nice straightforward rectangle of one. Steve vaguely remembered learning about their basics in high school but the knowledge had long since faded. He’d brave the embarrassment of asking Peter to explain it to him if he thought the kid would forget to ask about his progress on the cell question. Sighing inwardly, he fixed his attention back on the screen, trying to puzzle out the technical jargon of analog and channels and too many frequencies. This was the point where in a class he’d usually phone a friend. Which, come to think of it, was a great idea! Sam might know, aviation had to require some science and technology courses right? Anyways, if he couldn’t relay the information, Peter seemed pretty capable when it can to articulating his queries.

“Peter, I’m going to call a friend okay and see if he can help us figure out how this stuff works. Sound good?”

“Great!” the kid enthused. “Do you think your friend can help with the other stuff too?”

“I’ll ask,” Steve smiles. Pulling out his phone he hastily scrolled through his contacts to find Sam and hit the screen to call. The phone didn’t ring for long.

“Hello Captain Handsome,” a voice that was most definitely not Sam’s purred. It did sound vaguely familiar though.

Steve pulled his hand back to check his phone screen. Darn thing had gone black. He put the phone back up to his ear. “Um sorry, who is this?”

“Come on Handsome, you’re the one who called me,” the male on the other end of the receiver sounded amused. “What? You getting senile in your old age?”

He blinked as the memory came back to him. 

// 

“You’re only, what, two? Three years older than me? Gimme a chance Captain Handsome,” Tony smiled winningly. 

“Would you stop calling me that?” He wasn’t ashamed of being Captain of the varsity hockey team, but he didn’t think it merited any special attention when he was off-ice.

“If I can finally play with your…” Tony wasn’t going to say what he thought he was going to, was he? Steve wouldn’t put it past the guy though. “…phone? Ooh, I almost gotcha there!” 

Tony looked entirely too pleased with himself. Steve rolled his eyes but gave in. “Fine, just no texting or calling people and pretending it’s me.” 

“You take the fun out of everything. God this is an old piece of tech,” the kid mused, plucking the phone from Steve’s hand. 

//

“Tony?”

“The one and only.”

They’d met when Bucky had thrown a party at their student house, traitorously teaming up with Sam with the claim that this way, Steve wouldn’t be able to avoid it. Tony had been drinking, which wouldn’t have been a problem except he was underage and the cops were coming. So Steve had ended up with the task of hiding, or occupying the drunk guy in case the cops came in the house. It would’ve been a pretty bothersome task if Tony hadn’t been a surprisingly coherent drunk and an entertaining conversationalist if you ignored the nigh constant flirting. The flirting and Tony’s sheer persistence had been what had gotten the number into his phone. When Tony had returned it to him, he’d mentioned having inputted his number. Steve guessed he’d pressed the wrong thing on the screen. For a smartphone, it sure wasn’t as reliable as his old slide.

“It’s this blasted phone, I must have hit the wrong thing,” he apologized. “I’m so sorry. Unless, by any chance, this _is_ Sam’s number and you’re visiting?”

“Sorry, nope. But don’t worry about it, wasn’t doing much anyways,” a beat. “So this isn’t the booty call I’ve been hoping to get from you?” There was the flirtatiousness he recalled. 

“At three in the afternoon on a weekday?” Steve raised his eyebrows.

“C’mon, no one’s really opposed to a little afternoon delight.”

Steve made a face. Hearing the clank of metal hitting the ground and a muffled curse, his fumbled with the phone in alarm. “Tony?”

“All good!” Tony’s voice sounded a little farther away and a bit too cheerful.

“Are you okay?” 

“Don’t worry about it!” 

“What happened?”

“Nothing! But uh, for future reference, don’t pick up calls midway through tinkering?”

“Tinkering, like with cars?”

“Sure, cars. Or robots.”

“Robots?” 

“Yeah! I mean, Dum-E’s not particularly intelligent or anything – you stop that, you aren’t – but he’s pretty awesome if I do say so myself.”

“That sounds pretty cool.” Steve felt a tug at his sleeve. Peter looked up at him mouthing ‘Robots?’ with wide eyes. Steve nodded and crouched down. “Hey Tony, if you’re good enough with tech things to build robots, do you know much about cell phones?”

“But, I want to hear about robots,” Peter whispered.

“What’d you want to know about ‘em?”

“It’s not for me, it’s for a friend. He also wants to know about robots. Mind if I put him on?

“Put me on speaker!”

“Umm,” Steve took the phone away from his ear and looked at it in puzzlement. “How do you…”

Peter waved a hand over the dark screen and it lit up. “You press here, Steve.” He whispered loudly.

“Thanks Peter,” Steve whispered back. “Testing testing?”

“—how to put a phone on speaker? Solved the mystery?” Tony’s voice came out loud and clear.

“Seems like it. Peter, say hi to Tony.”

“Hi Tony,” the kid chirped obediently.

There was a slight pause from the other end. “Hi Peter. How old are you?”

“Ten! I know I’m not supposed to eavesdrop but Steve said robots and—”

“You want to hear about them?” Tony asked, sounding like he was grinning. 

“Yes! Please. Oh and I have other questions that um, I don’t think Steve knows how to answer,” Peter’s voice dipped guiltily as if it would stop his babysitter from hearing him. Steve fought back a smile.

“I don’t think I know how to answer them either,” he admitted without shame. “Good thing I called a friend?”

“Right, can’t feed misinformation to children.” He was certain Tony was grinning now. “Okay Pete, can I call you Pete, the robot’s name in Dum-E, for fairly obvious reasons, but he tries very, very hard not to be.”

“How does he work?”

“He helps me around the lab?” The genius hedged.

“No silly,” Peter giggled. “I mean, do you use a controller? Does he have buttons?”

“Oh, no! Dum-E can interpret commands and move on his own.”

“So, he’s artificially intelligent?” 

Steve was getting the impression that Peter was not just interested in robots on a superficial, Transformers-ish level. 

“At a basic level.”

“Can he talk?”

“No, I thought about putting a voice box in, but I don’t think I’d even hear him most of the time when the music’s on in here.”

“What kind of music do you like?” Steve interjected. He wasn’t really feeling out of the conversation, happy to listen in, but he found that he was curious about Tony. The guy was being pretty patient with Peter and while Steve had no real knowledge of robotics, that Tony had made one that could do all of what he was describing sounded pretty incredible.

“Classic rock,” Tony replied in a tone that implied there was no other option. “What about you? Wait don’t tell me, it’s like, hits from the ’40s.”

“Hmm, well, off ice...” Steve began solemnly.

“It’s not. You have got to be joking.”

Steve laughed. “I haven’t got any particular favourite. I’d say, either I like a song or I don’t.”

“Everyone’s like that,” Tony sounded teasing. “Don’t you agree, Peter?”

“Um,” the kid hedged, looking like he wasn’t sure what was the least offensive answer. Steve put a hand on his shoulder and spoke up.

“Tony, how about you tell us about cell phones. How the signals are sent and received? We got up to phones being on the same wavelengths…”

Tony sputtered. “Okay you need help. Serious help. Good thing you called the big guns – that’s me by the way – because let me learn you some things…”

What followed Steve understood, but in the abstract way of large concepts, not the nitty gritty technical bits. That stuff Peter seemed to be lapping up though. He was trying to sketch how things would work whenever Tony made frustrated sounds when trying to describe the setup of towers and how some providers piggybacked. 

Which was when the brilliant (read: less than brilliant) suggestion came up that they should visit Tony in his lab.

“Uh, Peter, I don’t think we should impose on Tony like that. He’s probably doing important things, like with that robot he was telling you about,” Steve tried to dissuade his young charge.

“But, Tony offered,” Peter pointed out, matter-of-fact.

“Yeah, it’s cool! I’m ahead on most of my projects. I mean, if you can’t, I get it, but,” Tony backtracked sounding a little hurt.

Between the guilt that refusing Tony’s incredibly generous offer would bring and Peter’s effective use of his big brown eyes, Steve caved. “Let me call your Aunt and we’ll see what she has to say, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Call me back then?”

“Uhh, just give me a minute,” Steve set down his cell phone as Peter came running with the home phone, dialing away. 

“Aunt May, Steve’s got a friend who has a robot and I want to see him, can I? Can I? He said we could go over now!”

Steve took charge of the phone. “Sorry May.” He explained the situation and once he left assurance that he would of course leave a note at home for where to find them should anything go wrong, got her happy permission to take Peter out of the house.

//

The building Tony’s lab was housed in was a pretty ugly, concrete thing, at least compared to the airy studio where Steve worked on his art pieces. On the other hand, the engineering building was laid out far less confusingly, like there hadn’t been wings added every couple years like in the art building. Still, Steve was glad Tony had come out to meet him and Peter when they’d gotten to the door.

“You made it! Took you long enough,” Tony teased. Dressed casually as he was in jeans and a black tank top, he was even better looking than Steve recalled. 

“Sorry about that, _someone_ here got a little hungry,” he explained. 

“Hi Tony, I’m Peter,” the small brunette struck out the hand that wasn’t holding Steve’s.

“Hi Peter, it’s nice to meet a fellow scientist,” Tony said seriously, shaking the proffered hand. “So, you want to see my lab?”

“Uh-huh!” Peter nodded enthusiastically.

“Thanks for having us,” Steve shook his hand too.

“My pleasure, I don’t get to show off enough.”

“I kind of doubt that.”

“Fine fine, but I don’t show my toys to all my friends.”

The chatter was fairly meaningless as they followed Tony through the halls. At the door, Tony paused.

“Uh, I kinda forgot to mention. Can you guys promise not to share what you see?”

“Like a secret?” Peter asked, intrigued. 

“Yeah, a big secret,” Tony nodded.

“You’re not showing us anything illegal are you?” Steve asked worriedly.

“No no! Just interlab, interstudent competitive stuff, you know how it is.” 

Pacified, Steve followed Tony and Peter into the lab. The first thing he noticed was that the place was spacious for a university and that they were the only ones there, at least at the moment. Apart from size, there wasn’t much to speak of. Heavy machines were scattered about and scarred wood slabs were covered in dull metal parts and diagrams.

The next thing he noticed because there was no way not to. He yelped in surprise as his side was prodded. 

“Dum-E!” Tony cried. “Back up a little would you? You really need to learn better depth perception or do you intend to impale all my guests?”

The robot wheeled back a little on its base, a rectangular box with wheels, its metal claw drooping like it was hanging its head. It wasn’t really what Steve had imagined, nothing like the humanoid robots he’d seen in cartoons as a kid, but it was still a curious object. 

“You okay?” It’s owner checked.

“Uh, yeah. No harm done. I was just surprised,” Steve smiled. “He can understand you?”

“Yup! Well, in part. He’s still learning.”

“What was he trying to do?”

“Shake your hand. He watched me do it last week when some of the bigwigs came by last week and ever since, he’s been on a hand-shaking spree.”

“How smart,” Steve chuckled and extended his hand slowly. “Hello Dum-E.”

Its arm-head rose excitedly, the camera lens, situated below the extended claw swivelling to Tony for a moment before Steve shared his first handshake with a robot. 

“Hello Dum-E, I’m Peter.” The kid followed Steve’s lead once he’d seen no harm come to his babysitter. He’d been watching raptly, a little scared a first when the robot had startled Steve. “Tony told me about you on the phone.”

After shaking his hand, the robot didn’t make any response and Peter looked in askance at Tony.

“Remember how I told you Dum-E can’t speak?” Tony smiled as the kid ‘ohh’ed, figuring out that Dum-E couldn’t respond to him. “Want to see what he can do? He’s not too good at it yet though. Can you say, Dum-E, fetch the screwdriver?”

“Dum-E, fetch the screwdriver. Please,” Peter tacked on the ending, manners having been drilled into him by Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

They watched as the robot stirred into motion, making a little U-turn to head back to one of the worktables where it came to a halt, ostensibly looking over the tools laying there. Finding its target, the claw clumsily plucked it off the table sending a bevy of other tools clanging to the floor. The three winced as Dum-E conducted another little turn, returning to them triumphantly holding its prize. 

“Good job, Dum-E,” Tony sighed, taking the tool. “Now, next time, try not to knock everything off the table? Try cleaning up? Dum-E, go clean-up.” 

“That was so cool,” Peter cheered. 

“Eh, well as you can see, he’s still got some kinks to work out,” Tony said sheepishly.

“No, Tony, that was really neat. You made him? All on your own?”

“Yeah, I needed a lab assistant,” the inventor shrugged, but he seemed pleased at their responses.

“With a lab this size, I’d imagine!” Steve enthused. “So what else’ve you got in your toybox?”

The next hour was as good as visiting a science museum. Tony showed them some of the projects hiding under the tarps, going the extra mile to answer any and all of Peter’s questions. After showing some 3D plans on his laptop, he’d opened it up (to Steve’s horror) when Peter had asked what was inside. The poor piece of technology had had its guts spilled across the table shortly and Tony had explained the bits and pieces in terms that even Steve had been able to follow before letting Peter help him put them all back together.

It sort of looked like playing Operation with a lot more potential for destroying an expensive piece of equipment. Steve didn’t join in, watching the two attentively. He was surprised and pleased at how kid-friendly Tony was. At the party, he’d had the impression that Tony was a bit of a wild child, but here in the lab, the love for fun appeared to be suitably tempered.

His stomach growled and he checked the time with a start. “Uh, Tony, it’s getting kinda late.”

The dark-haired teen clued in. “You need to go?” 

“Soon yeah. We need to eat and head back uptown if we’re going to get in for his bedtime.”

“But Steeeeeve, Tony was going to show me the inside of a phone next! I don’t want to go,” Peter protested.

“Hey little man, I think you have to listen to Steve on this one,” Tony began. A thought seemed to occur to him. “Uh, Peter, can you put these in those slots?”

“Uh-huh!” the kid nodded, attention turning back to the tiny pieces of circuitry.

Tony waited a beat before asking privately. “Actually, how are you getting back?”

“The bus?” Steve offered, quirking an eyebrow. Some kids might be rich enough to own a car while attending college but not him. Hockey equipment was expensive enough.

“I could give you guys a ride?” Tony ventured hesitantly.

“You have a car?” he asked, surprised.

“Uhh, no. I have a chauffeur,” Tony scratched the back of his neck.

“What?” Steve asked, intelligently. He wasn’t sure how to react. From the little bits of Tony’s homelife he’d picked up from their scant interactions, he’d gotten the impression that the guy was well-to-do, but to have his own chauffeur? “You’re kidding right?”

“Nope. Though he’s sort of a chauffeur-bodyguard,” Tony trailed off, realizing that his explanation wasn’t improving matters much.

“Bodyguard? Why do you need a bodyguard?” 

“So you know those secret projects I mentioned?” Tony began. “It’s not really for that, don’t worry. Have you heard of Stark Industries?”

“Vaguely,” the name prompted a logo to flash into his mind’s eye. Where he’d seen it, he wasn’t certain. 

“Uhh, my name’s Tony Stark?”

“So, you have a bodyguard because your family owns a business?”

“Yeeaaah. Let’s go with that. Yes, because of the family business. It’s a, a pretty rich company,” he chuckled nervously. “So don’t hate?”

“Why would I hate you?” Steve asked, puzzled.

“Nevermind. The ride though?”

“No, I don’t want to be an imposition.”

“I’m the one offering! The kid’s pretty cool, y’know,” Tony said earnestly.

“I know. His Aunt’s fantastic too. She does amazing work at the homeless shelter,” Steve smiled. “We’ve already taken up so much of your time…”

“Homeless shelter? But seriously, it’d be my pleasure. If you feel that guilty about it, have dinner with me or something.”

“Yeah, we both volunteer there, it’s how I ended up babysitting Peter,” he explained while considering the offer. Tony was a nice enough guy and getting a drive back would cut the travel time down nicely as the bus stop was a few blocks from Peter’s house. “You want to go to Big Rico’s?”

Tony looked confused, so Steve clarified that it was the pizza place up the road. 

“I know Big Rico’s, I just thought – yeah, that’d be great. When’d you want to go?”

“Now?” Steve had the feeling he was missing something here.

“Oh! Oh. Okay, yeah, that works,” Tony’s smile seemed a little forced suddenly.

“What’s the matter? Do you not like pizza?” Steve tried.

“No, no, pizza’s fine. I like pizza,” he said in a tone that set off little warning bells to Steve that things weren’t actually fine.

“Tony? If it’s easier for you, Peter and I can still take the bus home.”

“No! Pizza, Rico’s, all good. Just let me finish up putting this together and we’ll be off!” 

Was that a note of panic Steve was hearing? He frowned. “Okay, but Tony, did I say something wrong? I didn’t mean to offend you or anything, you’ve been so nice to us today.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m going to worry about it.”

Tony sighed and seemed to muster his courage though he didn’t meet Steve’s eyes. “I uh, was kinda hoping the thank-you dinner might be uh, just you and I. But that’s cool, I mean, I wasn’t expecting anything so no harm, no foul, I’m good with just being friends.”

“Uh-huh, friends are good.” It took a minute for it to click for Steve. “Wait. You want a date?”

“Yes?” Tony studied his face. “Man, I need to up my game. You totally didn’t clue in, did you?”

“I didn’t. And yes. Sure, I mean, I’d love to take you out to dinner,” Steve stuttered a little, feeling heat rising to his cheeks as he added. “Without Peter.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Great!”

“But uh, tonight too?”

“Of course!”

“Uhh, Tony, I think this part’s done,” Peter tapped the grinning engineer on his forearm. To his babysitter he asked. “Do we have to go now?”

“Yeah, we’re going to get some pizza with Tony and then he’s going to take us back to your house,” Steve smiled.

“Pizza? Yay!”

Though they were no longer in any rush, the laptop was finished being put back together promptly and Steve and Peter helped Tony clean up the lab though he tried to insist that it was unnecessary. Steve just reminded him that he should set a good example, if Peter had to clean up after himself after playing, so should Tony. It was fairly childish logic, but it worked nonetheless and Steve was confident that at least when Tony returned to the lab tomorrow, he’d be able to find everything which was something he’d complained to be a problem from time to time (‘I’d just buy a new screwdriver, no big deal!’ ‘But if you could find it, you wouldn’t need to buy another’). They gave Dum-E a pat goodbye and went off for food, by which time Steve’s stomach was vocally agreeing that that was a good choice much to his companion’s amusement.

Big Rico’s pizza was as usual, scrumptious. Between bites, they chatted about a range of matters letting Peter’s questions guide the conversation. The kid has an bottomless supply of curiosity and between Tony’s knowledge when it came to scientific matters, and Steve’s when it came to sports, they were fairly well covered. When Tony faltered when Peter started asking about human biology though, Steve shone. His mother was a nurse and he’d been sick a lot of a child so he was well versed in the matter. When he’d had to stay home and been too weak to get out of bed, he’d ended up reading some of his mother’s medical journals in between drawing. 

Hunger sated, Tony made a call to his driver for a pickup and once the car arrived, the trio clambered in. Confronted with meeting Happy, Tony’s bodyguard-driver and seeing the (very nice) car, Steve had to remind himself not to freak out. Just because Tony Stark was alarmingly rich, didn’t mean he was any different of a person than he had been at the party or in the lab, or eating pizza and getting grease all over his hands. Still, he couldn’t resist commenting to how different life must be, getting a wry comment back that life always had pros and cons. The car pulled up to the Parker house.

“Well, this is us,” Steve commented as the car pulled up to the Parker house. “Thank-you so much for the ride and having us today Tony, I had a great time. You saved my butt answering all of this little guy’s questions.”

“Thank-you Tony! I learned a lot! Can I come to your lab again?” Peter asked hopefully.

“No problem and if your aunt agrees, I don’t mind,” Tony smiled. “You asked some good questions today.”

“I did?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do you think I can be a scientist when I grow up?”

“Think it? I know so.”

“You’re the best!” Peter threw his arms around Tony’s waist, starting him. Realizing the hug for what it was, he wrapped his arms around Peter too and patted him awkwardly. Steve fought back a grin. Taking mercy on Tony, he opened the door.

“Time to go inside Peter,” he called, exiting the vehicle. 

“See you Tony!” Peter bounded towards the front door, waving his goodbye enthusiastically.

“See you Tony,” Steve echoed, leaning down to shut the door. “I’ll call? Text?”

“Either or. See you soon?” Tony checked.

“See you soon,” Steve confirmed.

//

Steve and Tony started dating soon after their first date. It should have gone horribly, the terrible food despite the excellent service at the restaurant, the freak rainstorm, Tony’s father being home unexpectedly, but it hadn’t. They’d bonded over the culinary failures and respect for good service, laughed as they ran through the rain, getting drenched in seconds, and Howard Stark was apparently a hockey fan. The second date was far less remarkable but traditional and sweet. Off and on Peter did get to visit Tony’s lab and spend time with the two of them, Aunt May and Uncle Ben happy that someone could sate his appetite for knowledge. One weekend, they made the short trek across campus to visit the studio where Steve did his work. Compared to Tony’s lab, it was small, almost cramped, and littered with drawing tools and paint rather than mechanical tools and grease. Steve learned that while you could take the scientists out of the lab, you couldn’t take the science out of the scientists as Peter and Tony ended up designing parts of simple machines while he worked on a painting he had due. He didn’t mind though, watching them he had a feeling that they’d be the subjects of his next piece.

//

Despite his father’s enthusiasm for the sport, Tony didn’t quite get the fuss about hockey. While his dad and Steve could talk for ages about the strategies involved and the plays that had been made in a game, Tony could follow, but he’d prefer to spend time on something he was actually interested in. Anyways, unlike sports like football or swimming or soccer, it wasn’t as if hockey uniforms were flattering. Ill-fitting jerseys which were just long enough to cover anything fun, and helmets that made it seem like every gameday was a bad hair day. He could go on.

That all changed one night when Tony was accompanying Steve while the blond did his groceries. The groceries had very little to do with anything, but the lineup had set them right before those magazines stores place by the cashier in the hopes of making an extra sale. While normally, neither guy was too interested in magazines, Tony had noted that Steve was flipping through one, skim reading an article. It was, of course, on a hockey player, one of the many Steve admired. What caught Tony’s eye though was much more superficial.

“You mentioned this Henrik guy’s name before, but you never told me he was _hot_ ,” he complained, tugging the page into better view. “Trying to keep him all to yourself?”

“C’mon Tony, I like his goaltending,” Steve protested with a laugh. “And I’m hardly keeping him to myself.”

“Oh come on. Not even you’re that much of a boy scout,” Tony levelled a look at his boyfriend.

“Okay, I like his looks too. But he’s really skilled and that’s kind of the really attractive thing,” Steve smiled.

“Promise me when you get to the big leagues you’re not going to hop on that without me?”

“I promise I won’t ‘hop on that’ at all, not while I have you,” Steve gave Tony a quick kiss.

“Oh great, so you’ll just dump me before you have sex with the hot goalie? You should share. Shaaaaare,” Tony fake grumbled.

“You’re silly,” Steve leaned close enough that their noses bumped.

“You’re sillier,” he pouted, nuzzling back.

“You ready to check out?” the checkout girl called.

A few days later Steve was watching a game at Tony’s house, citing the larger screen to be fair enticement. The Rangers, Steve’s favourite team, were playing the Maple Leafs that evening and once Steve had informed Tony that the hot goalie was on tonight, he hadn’t protested much. About midway through, an interview came on during the break.

“You didn’t tell me he had an accent,” Tony whispered like it was a betrayal.

“He’s Swedish?”

“Swedish American doesn’t mean an accent any more than like, Chinese American though. He’s an _import_.”

“I don’t think that’s what they’re called Tony.”

“Who cares?”

“He’s also an Olympian.”

“I hate you. And how you will one day be with him in a locker room.”

“Tony!”

“Well, we can pray. Because I’ll expect a description.”

“You’re terrible.”

“You love it.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes Big Rico's is a Welcome to Night Vale mention.
> 
> I know next to nothing about hockey, hence why the last bit switches perspective, but I saw a picture of Henrik Lundqvist from GQ thanks to [limit-the-sky](http://limit-the-sky.tumblr.com) which prompted me to actually add the bit at the end. Thanks to her and the wonderful TheGreaterSin (aka the awesome bassist of [The Blast Processors](blastprocessors.bandcamp.com) and a few other bands) I learned a little more about my country's national winter sport (I had to look that up to be sure, that should tell you something)! I uh, also learned things about sport-farms and teams other than the Leafs.
> 
> Posting without having gotten this beta'd, if anyone would like that dubious honour or if you want to point out any spelling/grammar errors I didn't catch in my sleep state, drop me a line!


End file.
